Public Astronomy

I'm going to help with this event by setting up a couple of telescopes.


Here are details:

Metro Parks Starry Nights at Deas Island
is happening today

Saturday, August 13, 2011
6:30 PM
Deas Island
River Road and 62B st,
Delta, BC V3M 0A2

10 Astronomy buffs


Weather permitting, on August 13th several RASC volunteers will bring telescopes to Metro Parks’ Starry Night 2011 event on Deas Island.

Bring the kids for a fun evening with (hopefully) a bit of stargazing.

Here’s a link to Metro Parks'
information poster on the event; the following information is taken from the poster:

Starry Night

Deas Island Regional Park, Delta

Saturday, August 13, 2011

6:30 - 9:30 pm

Enjoy an enchanted evening illuminated by starlight and lanterns. Stroll the lantern lit paths, join the drumming circle and discover the park at night. Allow 1hr to complete the walk. Bring a flashlight.

Presented by the Corporation of Delta, Parks, Recreation and Culture in Partnership with Metro Vancouver.

Everyone welcome

www.metrovancouver.org

Sponsors & Perks:
RASC-Vancouver ·

Lack of understanding

I'm just reading an article in the Vancouver Sun titled "Dark side of the moon enigma solved?" It's astonishing to me, considering that we live in the age of space travel, that people still think that there is a "dark side". Everyone has seen that the moon always presents the same face to us, as it orbits around the Earth once a month (the word "month" comes from "moon"). This means that the moon turns around it's own axis of rotation once a month as well, as seen from a point outside the moon's orbit. This also means that sunlight illuminates every part of the moon in turn, as the moon travels around the Earth, just as most parts of the Earth receive sunlight every day. The side of the moon we never see from Earth is called the "far side", not the "dark side"; it gets it's sunshine just like the rest of the moon.

To see this kind of misunderstanding perpetuated in a reputable newspaper is lamentable. In my opinion, it shows a very limited knowledge of our place in the universe and a lack of scientific understanding.

A pleasant evening

With the "kids" being away, the house feels somewhat empty.
But, with today being a nice day (it's 24 degrees Celsius - 72 F) right now (8pm), my wife and I decided to enjoy a glass of wine along with our evening snack on the back deck.
We do this as often as possible. The back deck is covered, sometimes we spend a good part of the day here. Occasionally, we sit here (particularly when family or friends are visiting) well past midnight.
This is a pleasant evening; there have been very few this year.

Evolution is dumb.

Every day, I think of Derek. His death on May 3 seems such a waste. He was killed by the rogue colorectal cancer cells in his body, which were the descendants of one cell. This mutated cell did not stop replicating, its descendants eventually invaded many of Derek's other organs, rendering them dysfunctional.

Derek's death also meant the death of those cancer cells, certainly not advantageous to them. I fail to see any purpose in this.

In addition, the we all lost a man with a brilliant mind who helped others in so many ways, both in person, and with his online writing. The many comments on his blog (www.penmachine.com) attest to that. His presence contributed to the betterment of humanity in many ways. His loss, therefore, is also a loss for all who knew him, intimately or casually. Again, I feel to see any logic in this.

In general, evolution has the connotation of progress. In reality, to me, evolution seems to be based on random changes at random times for random causes, the vast majority of which are detrimental to any organism involved. I suppose that this is a manifestation of the increasing entropy to which the second law of thermodynamics refers. Only very occasionally, by random happenstance, do these random changes result in an improvement for, or, even more rarely, the creation of an organism. It is only because there has been an immensely long time available (billions of years), that these very rare "good" mutations "accumulated" to form the life forms we see here on Earth. This may be a point to consider when talking about "extraterrestrial" life. What is hard to construct is easy to destroy. Disorder is far more likely than order.

Evolution has no directed purpose; it is not intelligent.

Life goes on

During this month my wife and I went to visit good friends in California, and yesterday, our granddaughter Marina graduated from elementary school (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiandpapa/sets/72157627073520948/).

We quite enjoyed our visit to California; it is always good to see friends whom you've known for a long time.

Our granddaughter's graduation was a lively affair - followed by a dance from which parents were "disinvited". She is a lovely young lady now, her dad (http://www.penmachine.com/) would have been proud of her.  In fact, we had a hard time recognizing many of her school friends in their fashionable dresses; they looked so mature.

Looking at this from the perspective of our own age, we had nostalgic feelings about our own youth, now so long ago.

Life goes on...

A bit of a sad day

As fathers' days go, this is a sad one today.
Since our son died on May 3, I will no longer be
getting a fathers' day card from him.

But, in future, the sad memories will be tempered
by the happy memories we have of our time together,
and this day will be bitter-sweet.

Return what you borrowed

A month ago today, our son Derek died. His ashes will be dispersed in a couple of places on Earth which he considered to be some of the most beautiful.

We are all made of "star stuff"- the original hydrogen, and most of the other atoms generated eons ago in some stupendous explosion of a supernova. Our existence may be considered to be an assembly of these various atoms into the molecules which constitute you, me, Earth, and all the animals and things that surround us. When we die, these are all returned to some place in this universe - perhaps to become part of some other intelligent entity eons from now.

It is possible to say, then, that we only "borrow" the building blocks of which we are made. Derek's molecules are therefore in the process of being returned to where they came from. This resonates with me.

(pictured by the Hubble Space Telescope)

As some of you know, I've had a life-long interest in astronomy. New stars, nebulae, and planets are constantly being formed somewhere in the universe. One of those places is the Orion Nebula, pictured above. From now on, I'll forever look at the heavens with the thought in my mind that some of these future objects will incorporate some of the same atoms and molecules which were once a part of Derek.

We'll all return what we borrowed.